EA2BKH

Hello to all..

On behalf of the VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team, we would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to all. Thanks to all of you for your support of the VoIP Hurricane Net during 2011.

The 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season was active and featured several activations for Hurricane Irene as Irene impacted portions of the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and the region from the Carolinas northward to New England. With the impact to New England, several net management team members stepped up to perform critical functions so that New England net management team members could prepare for Irene's impact. Those net management team members were NODRC-Dustin Cox and N0UAM-Jim Sellars. Also, several new net controls joined the net during the Irene activation and we appreciated their support as well. Irene was the worst tropical system to hit New England since Hurricane Bob in 1991 causing significant inland flooding in Western New England and significant wind damage and power outages in Southern New England with power outages lasting 2-4 days in many locations with some locations without power for close to one week. Similar power outages, damage and flooding occurred from the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic northward to New York State. Irene also caused widespread power outages and damage on Puerto Rico as well as the Bahamas.

The net was then activated for Hurricane Maria which impacted Newfoundland Canada but the highest winds stayed offshore of Newfoundland with only minor impact to the province. The net was also activated for Hurricane Rina which weakened to a tropical storm prior to impacting portions of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and Rina's main impact to their region was heavy rainfall. The VoIP Hurricane Net was active for 3 named storms, with a total of 6 activations, 3 of which were for Hurricane Irene.

WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center, monitored the net activations frequently and surface reports given to the station for use by the hurricane specialists. At times, this information appeared in National Hurricane Center Advisories. As our main client, we appreciate WX4NHC's support of our net and thank WX4NHC Coordinators, Julio Ripoll-WD4R and John McHugh-K4AG for their support.

We also had another successful SKYWARN Recongition Day event on the home of the VoIP Hurricane Net, Echolink conference: *WX-TALK* Node: 7203/IRLP 9219. Many NWS offices rotated on the system making contacts with Amateur Radio Operators and SKYWARN Spotters from around the country thanking them for their support as well making contact with different NWS offices around the country.

As we move into next year, we will again have a presence at the 2012 National Hurricane Conference in Orlando Florida. We will also look into restarting the NCO training and recruitment processes as we move into the new year.

We look forward to working with everyone again in 2012. Our first regular net of 2012 will be Saturday January 7th, 2012 at 7 PM ET/6 PM CT/5 PM MT/4 PM PT which also equates to 0000 UTC Sunday. The net will meet monthly through May and then become weekly during the Atlantic Hurricane Season. We again wish all of our reporting stations, net controls and supporting stations that listen to the VoIP Hurricane Net Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and a Happy Holiday season!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net

Hello to all...

The Atlantic Tropics continue to be active. Another system off of Africa has a high chance for development south of the Cape Verde Islands. This system has the potential to become a tropical depression in the next 48 hours and will be monitored. Here are updates on Hurricane Danielle and Tropical Storm Earl:

Hurricane Danielle is now a Category-IV Hurricane on the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane scale which classifies Danielle as a major hurricane and the first major hurricane of the 2010 Tropical Atlantic Season. Danielle is expected to recurve out to sea far east of Bermuda. Interests in Bermuda, however, are asked to monitor the progress of Danielle until it makes the complete turn north and northeast away from the island per strong computer weather model agreement.

Tropical Storm Earl is expected to intensify over the next several days and become a hurricane with some potential for Earl to become a major hurricane around or after 5 days. Earl is not expected to affect any land areas until late in the period, where some models bring the system closer to the Bahamas while other models bring the system further out into the open Atlantic. This will depend on the strength of 'the ridge' or high pressure between 60 West and 70 West longtitude. Earl will continue to bear close watching as it traverses across the Central Atlantic Ocean.

Earl and Danielle advisory information can be seen on the VoIPWXNet web site by looking under Atlantic Tropical Products off the Main Menu of the web site. Earl and Danielle Advisory information can also be seen off the National Hurricane Center web site via the following link:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

The 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season is starting to live up to its forecasted high activity level forecasted by NOAA and Dr. Gray's hurricane forecast team out of Colorado State University. The VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team will continue to monitor all systems in the tropics and will provide updates as necessary. Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net